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Supporting Parent SuccessGreat Rivers Convening, Feb 2015

• The Readiness Gap: Too many children from low-income families begin school already far behind.

• The Attendance Gap: Too many children from low-income families miss too many days of school.

• The Summer Slide: Too many children from low-income families lose too much ground over the summer months.

Community Solutions

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Two Big Bets: Parents & Health

“The focus on readiness,

attendance and summer

learning has led to an

unsurprising conclusion –

parents are the secret

sauce.” 

−Ralph Smith, Los Angeles Times

Big Bet:Parents • No one loves their children

more than parents do.

• We know that parents are their

children’s first teacher, brain

builder, best coach, strongest

advocate, and most important

role model.

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“Parents love for their

children is the single

greatest and most

underutilized natural

resource in education.” 

−Springboard Collaborative

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Successful Parents Initiative

SuccessfulParents • Skill-building, knowledge and

awareness

• Parent/teacher and parent/provider relationships

• Technology

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Strategies for Success

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Enrich their Children’s Vocabulary & Promote a Love for Reading

Community Solution Area: School Readiness Focus on book and language-rich environments

Proven & promising practices:• Reach Out And Read• Raising A Reader• First Book• Imagination Library

Indicator of success:

• More parents reading to their children every day; children reading at least 20 minutes daily

1. More parents reading to their children every day; children reading at least 20 minutes daily

2. Fewer children with undiagnosed and untreated developmental problems

3. Fewer kids missing school due to asthma or other respiratory diseases

4. More children engaged in summer learning activities

Indicators of Success

1. Given our CSAP, which of the Successful Parents’ strategic areas best aligns with our priorities?

2.  What partners do we have or would we need in our Coalition?

3.  What local funders have interest in any one of these areas?

4.  What data is available or what would we need to do to make the data available? Who would track? What would “moving the needle” on these indicators look like in our communities?

5.  What support would we need – including from GLR?

Table Top Questions

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Yolie Flores, Senior FellowCampaign for Grade-Level Reading

yflores@gradelevelreading.net